Lesson 03 · 11 min
Everything Needs a Home
You don't lose things. You put them somewhere reasonable that your brain doesn't index.
Listen first
Listen first: where things should actually live
Spoken introduction · read aloud in your browser
The keys are always somewhere sensible: a coat pocket, a table, next to the bread.
The problem is that 'sensible' is generated fresh each time.
One location, chosen by where you drop things — not where they belong.
The principle
Design for where you drop, not where it belongs
Most storage is organised by category: keys in the key drawer, chargers in the tech box. Category storage requires you to recall the category at speed while holding a bag and a coffee.
Behaviour-based storage works differently. Watch where the object actually gets abandoned, and put the container there.
It will look slightly wrong. It will also work, which is the only criterion that matters.
Rule
Put the bowl where you already drop the keys.
Course tool · Lesson 03
A Home for the Things You Lose
Five objects. One location each. Chosen by where you drop them, not where they belong.
Pick one
What do you lose most?
Quick win · 5 min
The duplicate trick
For anything you need in two places, stop transporting it. Buy a second charger, second scissors, second pack of pens. The cost is trivial next to the daily search.
Research says
Point-of-performance again
Barkley's clinical framing holds here: supports work when they're located where the behaviour occurs. A key bowl in the hallway is a point-of-performance intervention; a note to remember where you left your keys is not.
Barkley, R. (2015). ADHD: A Handbook for Diagnosis and Treatment, 4th ed.
Keep this
Three things to take.
- 01Store by behaviour, not by category.
- 02Open, lidless, at the point of entry.
- 03Duplicates beat transport systems.